Shows
The Mind-Body CoupleTrauma Triggers: What can I do when I freeze?We answer a listener’s question about the freeze response, teaching a straightforward method to move from freeze to safety. We normalize triggers and provide practical ideas you can use to respond when your nervous system drops in to danger mode.• Learn the ADDS skill: ask why, drop in, describe, shift to safety• Hear Tanner's personal story of rejection and freeze, and how he got outFor more free content, check out the links for our YouTube channel, Instagram, and Facebook accounts in the episode descriptionTanner Murtagh and Anne H...
2026-02-2626 minThe Mind-Body CoupleCareer Success While Healing Chronic SymptomsAmbition doesn’t have to cost your health.We start with the core problem: living neck up. Our culture rewards cognition—thinking, fixing, producing—while the body’s signals get ignored until they become symptoms.We dig into how to build a meaningful career without reigniting chronic pain/symptoms or overwhelming your nervous system. Tanner shares his personal experience, running two small businesses and staying healthy.We share a simple, fast tool called drop-in and describe: a 30–60 second check-in you can do multiple times an hour. You’ll hear how that tiny practice can lead to...
2026-01-2933 minThe Mind-Body CoupleWork Somatically to Heal TraumaWe answer Joni’s question about healing medical trauma after a health scare and show how to restore nervous system regulation using embodiment, exposure, and personal safety signals.We break down therapy room steps and an at-home plan to reduce dysregulation following traumatic events.We explore:• Medical trauma as a driver of health anxiety and chronic symptoms• Why avoidance reinforces danger• Embodiment defined and made practical• Building personalized safety signals before processing trauma• Staying within the healing window and pacing• Using repetition to desensitize triggers and stabilize safetyT...
2026-01-1524 minThe Mind-Body CoupleMake 2026 The Year You Heal Chronic Pain and SymptomsSend your questions to be answered live on the podcast to: info@painpsychotherapy.caReady to make 2026 the year you unlearn chronic pain or symptoms? We’re laying out 4 clear steps to heal.We start by reframing chronic symptoms through a neuroplastic lens: when assessments are clear and physical fixes stall, it often means the body is capable but the brain’s danger system is overprotective.From there, we dig into full commitment—trading treatment inconsistentcy for dedicated daily practices that teach safety. You’ll hear how small, measurable wins mark real change that lea...
2026-01-0131 minThe Mind-Body CoupleHoliday Survival Guide For Chronic Pain & IllnessSend your questions to be answered live on the podcast to: info@painpsychotherapy.caThe holidays can be filled with joy, but for many living with chronic pain or chronic illness, December brings spikes in symptoms, packed calendars, and pressure to perform happiness. We unpack why this happens through a brain and nervous system lens and share a realistic survival guide you can actually use, even on your busiest days.We break down how neuroplastic pain and illness amplifies under holiday “danger signals” such as: family conflict or distance, pressure, people pleasing, financial strain, and soci...
2025-12-1841 minThe Mind-Body CoupleCan You Combine Physiotherapy with a Neuroplastic Approach? - with Jim Prussack Jr. MPT, MMTWhat if the most powerful lever for chronic pain isn’t in your muscles or joints, but in your brain’s pain system? We sit down with Jim Prussack a physiotherapist who left a strictly structural model behind after diving deep into pain science, mentorship with John Sarno and Howard Schubiner, and years on the front lines of complex cases. The takeaway is both hopeful and concrete.We walk through how to tell if symptoms are neuroplastic—looking at timelines, flares tied to stress, inconsistency across activities, and the absence of clear tissue damage. From there, we show w...
2025-12-1135 minThe Mind-Body CoupleWhy I Stuck With Tanner Through His Chronic Pain JourneySend your questions to be answered live on the podcast to: info@painpsychotherapy.caLove doesn’t disappear when chronic pain shows up, but it can get buried under appointments, bills, and long stretches of silence. We open up about the years when pain became the only topic in our home, the ways our roles warped into caregiver and patient, and the slow, deliberate choices that helped us find our way back to closeness while symptoms were still present. This is a story about social safety—how relationships can signal danger or safety—and how ch...
2025-12-0443 minThe Mind-Body CouplePolyvagal Theory for Chronic Pain & SymptomsWe unpack polyvagal theory, starting with neuroception, the body’s below-conscious radar that constantly scans for danger or safety. When that radar gets oversensitive after stress, adversity, or trauma, it misreads harmless cues as threats. The result is chronic dysregulation that fuels neuroplastic pain, fatigue, gut issues, and anxiety—even when your logical mind says, “I’m fine.”We walk through the four core states—ventral vagal (safe and social), sympathetic (fight or flight), fawn (people-pleasing and perfectionism), and dorsal vagal (freeze and shutdown)—and connect each to common symptoms and relationship patterns. Instead of chasing a fantasy of bei...
2025-11-2738 minThe Mind-Body CoupleTry this Free 30-Day Program for Chronic Pain and Illness — See What Happens!PLEASE READ THE DISCLAIMER BELOW BEFORE BEGINNING THIS PROGRAM.If you live with chronic pain, fatigue, or illness, you’ve probably tried everything — medications, treatments, diets — and nothing seems to work long-term. That’s because for many people, the real root of chronic symptoms isn’t in the body… it’s in the brain and nervous system.This video introduces a free 30-day program designed to help you retrain your brain, calm your nervous system, and begin healing from chronic pain and illness — naturally.💡 What You’ll Learn✅ What neuroplastic pain and illness is — and wh...
2025-11-1321 minThe Mind-Body CoupleCan Repressing Emotions Cause Chronic Pain and Illness?What if the aches, tension, and fatigue you’ve been fighting are your emotions asking to be felt? We unpack the research on emotional suppression and show how a nervous system stuck in “danger” can translate stress into very real pain/illness—without structural damage. Drawing on studies of suppression and stress reactivity and clinical insights from neuroplastic pain work, we make the science practical, humane, and doable in everyday life.We walk through four patterns that keep feelings trapped in the body. Alexithymia makes it hard to notice and name what’s happening inside, so emotions “appear” as s...
2025-11-0636 minThe Mind-Body CoupleHealing Chronic Pain Is Possible — Here’s How I Did ItWhat if your most stubborn pain isn’t a broken body, but a brilliant brain trying to protect you? We open up about Tanner’s journey from spreading knee, shoulder, and back pain to a full recovery, and how the real turning point came when he reframed pain as a danger signal from the nervous system—not proof of damage. You’ll hear the messy middle too: fear, failed treatments, shrinking routines, and the isolation that follows when life gets small.We break down the five pillars that changed everything. First, evidence-based education shifted beliefs using the work of...
2025-10-3049 min
The Mind-Body Couple8 Tips & Tricks for Brain Retraining — Rewiring the Brain Out of Chronic Pain & IllnessYour brain can learn safety, and that changes everything about chronic pain and illness. We’re pulling back the curtain on brain retraining—what it is, what it isn’t, and how to use it day to day without turning healing into a pressure-filled project. If you’ve ever tried a practice, felt your pain/symptom drop once, and then chased that result like a pain pill, this conversation will reset your approach in the most helpful way.We start by defining brain retraining in clear terms and grounding it in two pillars: safe self-talk and embodiment. You’ll h...
2025-10-2328 minThe Mind-Body CoupleHealing Trauma Caused by Chronic Pain and IllnessThe body’s alarm system can get stuck on high when chronic pain and persistent symptoms take over, and we give that pattern a name: sensitization trauma. We unpack how symptoms, scary medical opinions, and hope-disappointment cycles teach the nervous system to brace, avoid, and shut down—and why recognizing this isn’t a setback, it’s a turning point.We start by defining sensitization trauma as the trauma caused by the onset, progression, and life impacts of chronic symptoms, then walk through three distinct stages: the frantic “fixing” phase, the spread-and-avoidance phase where anxiety and associations multiply, an...
2025-10-1632 minThe Mind-Body CouplePart 2: How to Go from Bed Bound to Fully MovingFear quietly writes rules that shrink a life: no hard chairs, no long walks, no lifting, no plans. In this episode, we share a practical roadmap to go from bedbound and fearful to confident and moving, grounded in the science of neuroplastic pain/symptoms and the lived experience of rebuilding capacity step by step.We start with the real pivot points—those “open window” moments when symptoms ease or stamina returns and the brain shows its hand. From there, we layer in safe self-talk that actually lands, not platitudes: evidence-based lines you repeat before, during, and after activi...
2025-10-0231 minThe Mind-Body CouplePart 1: How to Go from Bed Bound to Fully MovingHave you found yourself avoiding more and more activities as your pain or symptoms increase? Do you have an ever-growing list of movements, positions, or situations you need to avoid "or else"? You're not alone, and there's a fascinating explanation for why this happens.Tanner and Anne dive deep into how chronic pain creates a shrinking world through avoidance behaviors. Drawing from Tanner's personal journey from being nearly bed-bound to fully active again, they explain the neurological mechanisms that create false associations between normal activities and pain/symptoms. These associations form what they call your "pain or...
2025-09-2530 minThe Mind-Body CoupleThe Morning Routine That Can Rewire Your Brain & Heal Chronic PainCould your morning routine be secretly sabotaging your chronic pain and illness recovery? In this illuminating episode, we explore how those critical first moments after waking profoundly impact your nervous system's regulation and pain processing throughout the entire day.When you first open your eyes, your brain is in a uniquely vulnerable state—actively scanning your environment and asking: "Am I safe today, or am I in danger?" The signals you send during this transition period can either trigger fight-or-flight responses that amplify pain or create safety cues that begin a cascade of healing. We break down ex...
2025-09-1844 minThe Mind-Body Couple3 Habits that Keep You in Chronic Pain and SymptomsEver wondered why, despite trying countless treatments, your chronic pain and illness persists? The answer might be hiding in your daily habits. Tanner and Anne reveal how our lifestyle patterns can keep us trapped in cycles of pain and symptoms—even when we're doing everything else "right."The MindBodyCouple hosts dive deep into three critical habits that maintain chronic pain. First, they explore high-intensity living—that relentless cycle of overworking, perfectionism, and ignoring basic needs that keeps our nervous systems stuck in fight-or-flight. Tanner shares his personal experience of how this pattern preceded his own chronic pain jour...
2025-09-1126 minThe Mind-Body CoupleTake Manual Control of Your Nervous SystemHave you ever felt stuck in anxiety, shutdown, or constant stress despite your best efforts to feel better? Your nervous system may need manual intervention—and waiting for automatic regulation might not be enough.In this deeply insightful episode, Tanner and Anne tackle the crucial concept of manually regulating your nervous system when it's not naturally returning to states of safety and connection. They begin by contrasting the ideal—a flexible nervous system that moves easily between high energy and low energy states, while staying anchored in safety—with the reality many of us face: persistent dysregulation driven...
2025-09-0422 minThe Mind-Body CoupleSomatic Therapy Explained: Feel Away Your SymptomsEver wondered why changing your thoughts isn't enough to heal chronic pain? Somatic therapy might be the missing piece of your healing puzzle.We dive deep into the crucial distinction between top-down approaches (like CBT and traditional talk therapy) that focus on changing thoughts, and bottom-up approaches that work directly with body sensations and nervous system regulation. While cognitive work has value, when it comes to chronic pain, trauma, and nervous system dysregulation, you simply can't think your way out of what your body needs to process and release.The connection between trauma and chronic...
2025-08-2820 minThe Mind-Body CoupleGo From T to S: The Brain Retraining Method That Helps Desensitize Chronic Pain & IllnessEver find yourself trapped in a cycle of obsessing over every twinge, googling symptoms endlessly, or talking about your pain nonstop? That mental fixation isn't just a reaction to your chronic pain and illness—it might actually be the force keeping it alive.In this transformative episode, we unveil our powerful "Go From T to S" brain retraining technique for breaking free from chronic pain and illness patterns. This simple yet profound approach helps you identify when you're feeding symptom pathways through common behaviours (the T's): Trying to fix it, Thinking about it too much, Testing it co...
2025-08-2127 minThe Mind-Body CoupleHow to Overcome Negative Thinking about Your Chronic Pain or Illness (Meditation Included)Ever notice how your thoughts about pain or symptoms seem to make it worse? You're not imagining things—negative thinking patterns actually trigger and intensify chronic pain and symptoms by dysregulating your nervous system.In this revealing episode, we dive deep into the powerful connection between your thoughts and physical symptoms. Drawing from both professional expertise and personal experience, we share our own recent struggles with anxiety spirals—Anne's obsessive worrying about her horse's health and Tanner's business-related stress—and how we applied therapeutic techniques to break free.The mind-body connection isn't just theoretical. When caught...
2025-08-1443 minThe Mind-Body Couple5 QUICK Ways to Regulate a Sensitized Nervous SystemWhen chronic pain or symptoms grip your life, the real culprit often lurks beneath the surface—a nervous system stuck in a state of perpetual danger. In this illuminating episode, Tanner and Anne share five powerful, scientifically-backed techniques to regulate your nervous system and create the internal safety your body desperately needs to heal.Most of us instinctively flee from uncomfortable sensations, a natural human tendency that paradoxically keeps us trapped in pain cycles. "Safety is the cure," Tanner explains, reframing regulation not as mere calmness but as developing the flexibility to return to equilibrium when life in...
2025-07-3131 minThe Mind-Body CoupleLet Them: The Chronic Pain & Illness EditionThe struggle for control lies at the heart of many chronic pain conditions—but what if letting go could offer more relief than fighting ever could? When faced with persistent symptoms, our natural instinct pushes us to fight, fix, and control. We've been conditioned to believe that addressing physical problems means actively engaging with them, finding their cause, and eliminating them through sheer determination. Yet for those with neuroplastic pain and symptoms, this approach often backfires, creating a feedback loop of frustration, fear, and worsening symptoms.Drawing on Mel Robbins' powerful "Let Them" concept, we exp...
2025-07-1719 minThe Mind-Body CoupleBreaking the Depression - Chronic Pain CycleDepression and chronic pain create a vicious cycle that can feel impossible to break. If you're caught in this loop, you're not alone – and there's hope for healing both simultaneously.Many people experience depression as a natural response to living with chronic pain, but few understand how these conditions feed each other through nervous system dysregulation. When your system stays in a heightened state of danger for too long, it can trigger both physical symptoms and a freeze/shutdown response we recognize as depression.Throughout this episode, we share our personal experiences with this cycle an...
2025-07-1026 minThe Mind-Body CoupleBetter Mindset, Better Results! A Path to Healing Chronic Pain & IllnessWhy do some people recover from chronic pain and illness with seemingly imperfect techniques while others follow every strategy meticulously yet struggle? The answer lies not in what you're doing, but how you're doing it.The foundation of effective healing isn't mastering complicated strategies—it's cultivating the right mindset. When we approach recovery with intensity, pressure, perfectionism, or fear, we inadvertently signal danger to our nervous systems, perpetuating the very symptoms we're trying to resolve.True healing begins with creating safety. This means embracing slowness, lightness, and ease in your practices and daily life. It me...
2025-07-0327 min